Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1353947
Metadata Summary
Problem Reports
Data Access Policy
Narrative Documents
Project Information
Data Activity or Cruise Information
Fixed Station Information
BODC Quality Flags
SeaDataNet Quality Flags
Metadata Summary
Data Description |
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Data Identifiers |
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Time Co-ordinates(UT) |
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Spatial Co-ordinates | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Parameters |
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Definition of BOTTFLAG | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BOTTFLAG | Definition |
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0 | The sampling event occurred without any incident being reported to BODC. |
1 | The filter in an in-situ sampling pump physically ruptured during sample resulting in an unquantifiable loss of sampled material. |
2 | Analytical evidence (e.g. surface water salinity measured on a sample collected at depth) indicates that the water sample has been contaminated by water from depths other than the depths of sampling. |
3 | The feedback indicator on the deck unit reported that the bottle closure command had failed. General Oceanics deck units used on NERC vessels in the 80s and 90s were renowned for reporting misfires when the bottle had been closed. This flag is also suitable for when a trigger command is mistakenly sent to a bottle that has previously been fired. |
4 | During the sampling deployment the bottle was fired in an order other than incrementing rosette position. Indicative of the potential for errors in the assignment of bottle firing depth, especially with General Oceanics rosettes. |
5 | Water was reported to be escaping from the bottle as the rosette was being recovered. |
6 | The bottle seals were observed to be incorrectly seated and the bottle was only part full of water on recovery. |
7 | Either the bottle was found to contain no sample on recovery or there was no bottle fitted to the rosette position fired (but SBE35 record may exist). |
8 | There is reason to doubt the accuracy of the sampling depth associated with the sample. |
9 | The bottle air vent had not been closed prior to deployment giving rise to a risk of sample contamination through leakage. |
Definition of Rank |
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Problem Reports
No Problem Report Found in the Database
Data Access Policy
Open Data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
You must always use the following attribution statement to acknowledge the source of the information: "Contains data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council."
Narrative Documents
Niskin Bottle
The Niskin bottle is a device used by oceanographers to collect subsurface seawater samples. It is a plastic bottle with caps and rubber seals at each end and is deployed with the caps held open, allowing free-flushing of the bottle as it moves through the water column.
Standard Niskin
The standard version of the bottle includes a plastic-coated metal spring or elastic cord running through the interior of the bottle that joins the two caps, and the caps are held open against the spring by plastic lanyards. When the bottle reaches the desired depth the lanyards are released by a pressure-actuated switch, command signal or messenger weight and the caps are forced shut and sealed, trapping the seawater sample.
Lever Action Niskin
The Lever Action Niskin Bottle differs from the standard version, in that the caps are held open during deployment by externally mounted stainless steel springs rather than an internal spring or cord. Lever Action Niskins are recommended for applications where a completely clear sample chamber is critical or for use in deep cold water.
Clean Sampling
A modified version of the standard Niskin bottle has been developed for clean sampling. This is teflon-coated and uses a latex cord to close the caps rather than a metal spring. The clean version of the Levered Action Niskin bottle is also teflon-coated and uses epoxy covered springs in place of the stainless steel springs. These bottles are specifically designed to minimise metal contamination when sampling trace metals.
Deployment
Bottles may be deployed singly clamped to a wire or in groups of up to 48 on a rosette. Standard bottles and Lever Action bottles have a capacity between 1.7 and 30 L. Reversing thermometers may be attached to a spring-loaded disk that rotates through 180° on bottle closure.
Nitrate, phosphate and silicate concentrations (micromolar sensitivity) for UK SOLAS cruise PO332
Originator's Protocol for Data Acquisition and Analysis
Samples for inorganic nutrient analyses were drawn from Niskin bottles deployed on the CTD rosette frame, from the trace metal clean GO-FLO bottles and from the surface trace metal clean towed fish into 25 ml sterilin coulter counter vials. They were kept refrigerated at 4 degree C until the analysis, which commenced within 24 hours. Analysis for nitrate and nitrite (hereinafter nitrate), phosphate and silicate was undertaken on a Skalar San Plus autoanalyser following methods described by Kirkwood (1994), with the exception that the pump rates through the phosphate line were increased by a factor of 1.5 which improves reproducibility and peak shape. Stations were run in batches of 2 to 4 with most runs containing 2 stations. Overall 27 runs were undertaken during the cruise. An artificial seawater matrix (ASW) of 40 g/l sodium chloride was used as the intersample wash and standard matrix. The nutrient free status of this solution was checked by running Ocean Scientific International (OSI) nutrient free seawater on every run. A single set of mixed standards were made up by diluting 5 µM solutions made from weighed dried salts in 1 L of ASW into plastic 1 L volumetric. Time between sample analysis and data work up did not exceed 24 hours. Data processing was undertaken using Skalar proprietary software. The wash time and sample time were 80 seconds; the lines were washed daily with 0.25 M sodium hydroxide (P) and 10% Decon (N, Si). Time series of baseline, instrument sensitivity, calibration curve correlation coefficient, nitrate reduction efficiency and duplicate difference were compiled and updated on a daily basis. More information about the performance of the autoanalyser can be obtained from the cruise report.
References Cited
Kirkwood D.S., 1994. Nutrients: Practical notes on their determination in seawater. ICES Techniques in Marine Environmental Sciences report 17. International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, Copenhagen, 25 pp.
BODC Data Processing Procedures
Data from CTD rosette and trace metal clean GO-FLO sampling were submitted to BODC in a spreadsheet format file (BODC_depthprofilesP332_051006.xls) containing nitrate + nitrite, phosphate and silicate concentrations, other measured parameters from multiple originators, and the following metadata fields: station number, cast number, sampling gear, date, start time, end time, rosette position number, depth.
Data from the trace metal clean towed fish were submitted in a separate spreadsheet file (POSEIDON_underwaydata_010207.xls) containing the nutrient data plus many other parameters measured by various originators. The following metadata fields were also included: sample I.D., date, time, latitude, longitude and depth of water column. 10 random samples had been analysed in duplicate (Bottle 1 and Bottle A). While agreement was generally good, for two samples (9 and 14) the duplicates showed large differences in the nitrate+nitrite and in the silicate concentrations with Bottle 1 values appearing more reliable than Bottle A values. As a result Bottle A values were ignored when loading the data in BODC database.
Parameter codes defined in BODC parameter dictionary were assigned to the variables as follows:
Originator's Parameter | Units | Description | BODC Parameter Code | Units | Comments |
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Nitrate | µM | Concentration of nitrate plus nitrite per unit volume of the water column | NTRZAATX | µmol l-1 | none |
Phosphate | µM | Concentration of phosphate per unit volume of the water column | PHOSAATX | µmol l-1 | none |
Silicate | µM | Concentration of dissolved silicate per unit volume of the water column | SLCAAATX | µmol l-1 | none |
The data were banked according to BODC standard procedures for sample data. The data from CTD casts were merged to existing records in BODC database by matching the originator's cast number and bottle depth with cast number and bottle depth held in BODC database. The two were in perfect agreement. Metadata for the surface underway fish and GO-FLO samples were checked against cruise report information and inserted new into BODC's database. Data were banked as received, with no modifications applied.
Data Quality Report
Duplicate analyses were provided for 10 samples from the underway fish sampler. There were issues with the reliability of some of the replicate values and these were therefore ignored when loading the data in the database.
A correction was made on 09/01/2014 to the firing depths of bottles ROSPOS#1 and ROSPOS#2 from CTD cast 045 when a routine check revealed that these two bottles had been matched to the wrong records in the SeaBird bottle file. The depths were changed from 143.2 and 145.1 m to 232.5 and 193.5 m respectively for bottles #1 and #2.
BODC is not aware of any other issues related to the quality of this data set.
Project Information
UK Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study
The UK Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (UK SOLAS) is the UK's contribution to the international SOLAS programme.
UK SOLAS formed interdisciplinary teams to address three primary aims
- To determine the mechanisms controlling rates of chemical transfer and improve estimates of chemical exchanges
- To evaluate the impact of these exchanges on the biogeochemistry of the surface ocean and lower atmosphere and on feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere
- To quantify the impacts of these boundary layer processes on the global climate system
UK SOLAS started in 2003, to run for seven years. The programme was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
Funded projects
In total, 19 projects have been funded by UK SOLAS, over four funding rounds.
Project Title | Short Title | Principal Investigator |
---|---|---|
Impact of atmospheric dust derived material and nutrient inputs on near-surface plankton microbiota in the tropical North Atlantic | Dust | Eric Achterberg |
The role and effects of photoprotective compounds in marine plankton | - | Steve Archer |
Field observations of sea spray, gas fluxes and whitecaps | SEASAW | Ian Brooks |
Factors influencing the biogeochemistry of iodine in the marine environment | - | Lucy Carpenter |
Global model of aerosol processes - effects of aerosol in the marine atmospheric boundary layer | GLOMAP | Ken Carslaw |
Ecological controls on fluxes of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) to the atmosphere | - | David Green |
Dust outflow and deposition to the ocean | DODO | Ellie Highwood |
Investigation of near surface production of iodocarbons - rates and exchanges | INSPIRE | Gill Malin |
Reactive halogens in the marine boundary layer | RHaMBLe | Gordon McFiggans |
The role of bacterioneuston in determining trace gas exchange rates | - | Colin Murrell |
Measuring methanol in sea water and investigating its sources and sinks in the marine environment | - | Phil Nightingale |
The impact of coastal upwellings on air-sea exchange of climatically important gases | ICON | Carol Robinson |
The Deep Ocean Gas Exchange Experiment | DOGEE | Rob Upstill-Goddard |
High wind air-sea exchanges | HiWASE | Margaret Yelland |
Aerosol characterisation and modelling in the marine environment | ACMME | James Allan |
3D simulation of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) in the north east Atlantic | - | Icarus Allen |
Processes affecting the chemistry and bioavailability of dust borne iron | - | Michael Krom |
The chemical structure of the lowermost atmosphere | - | Alastair Lewis |
Factors influencing the oxidative chemistry of the marine boundary layer | - | Paul Monks |
UK SOLAS has also supported ten tied studentships, and two CASE studentships.
Fieldwork
UK SOLAS fieldwork has included eight dedicated research cruises in the North Atlantic Ocean. Continuous measurements were made aboard aboard the Norwegian weather ship, Polarfront, until her decommission in 2009. Time series have been established at the SOLAS Cape Verde Observatory, and at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory L4 station. Experiments have taken place at the Bergen mesocosm facility.
A series of collaborative aircraft campaigns have added complementary atmospheric data. These campaigns were funded by UK SOLAS, African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA-UK), Dust and Biomass Experiment (DABEX) and the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM).
Weblink: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/solas/
Data Activity or Cruise Information
Data Activity
Start Date (yyyy-mm-dd) | 2006-02-08 |
End Date (yyyy-mm-dd) | 2006-02-08 |
Organization Undertaking Activity | University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science |
Country of Organization | United Kingdom |
Originator's Data Activity Identifier | PO332_CTD_cast_25 |
Platform Category | lowered unmanned submersible |
BODC Sample Metadata Report for PO332_CTD_cast_25
Sample reference number | Nominal collection volume(l) | Bottle rosette position | Bottle firing sequence number | Minimum pressure sampled (dbar) | Maximum pressure sampled (dbar) | Depth of sampling point (m) | Bottle type | Sample quality flag | Bottle reference | Comments |
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169004 | 5.00 | 1 | 1 | 232.60 | 233.10 | 231.30 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169005 | 5.00 | 2 | 2 | 180.40 | 181.00 | 179.50 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169006 | 5.00 | 3 | 3 | 180.50 | 181.70 | 179.90 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169007 | 5.00 | 4 | 4 | 180.20 | 181.00 | 179.50 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169008 | 5.00 | 5 | 5 | 120.10 | 121.10 | 119.80 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169009 | 5.00 | 6 | 6 | 80.60 | 81.10 | 80.40 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169010 | 5.00 | 7 | 7 | 45.10 | 45.50 | 45.00 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169011 | 5.00 | 8 | 8 | 45.20 | 45.40 | 45.00 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169012 | 5.00 | 9 | 9 | 24.60 | 25.10 | 24.70 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169013 | 5.00 | 10 | 10 | 24.90 | 25.30 | 24.90 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169014 | 5.00 | 11 | 11 | 2.20 | 2.90 | 2.50 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported | ||
169015 | 5.00 | 12 | 12 | 2.20 | 2.50 | 2.30 | Niskin bottle | No problem reported |
Please note:the supplied parameters may not have been sampled from all the bottle firings described in the table above. Cross-match the Sample Reference Number above against the SAMPRFNM value in the data file to identify the relevant metadata.
Cruise
Cruise Name | PO332 |
Departure Date | 2006-01-26 |
Arrival Date | 2006-02-26 |
Principal Scientist(s) | Eric Pieter Achterberg (University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science) |
Ship | FS Poseidon |
Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here
Fixed Station Information
No Fixed Station Information held for the Series
BODC Quality Control Flags
The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:
Flag | Description |
---|---|
Blank | Unqualified |
< | Below detection limit |
> | In excess of quoted value |
A | Taxonomic flag for affinis (aff.) |
B | Beginning of CTD Down/Up Cast |
C | Taxonomic flag for confer (cf.) |
D | Thermometric depth |
E | End of CTD Down/Up Cast |
G | Non-taxonomic biological characteristic uncertainty |
H | Extrapolated value |
I | Taxonomic flag for single species (sp.) |
K | Improbable value - unknown quality control source |
L | Improbable value - originator's quality control |
M | Improbable value - BODC quality control |
N | Null value |
O | Improbable value - user quality control |
P | Trace/calm |
Q | Indeterminate |
R | Replacement value |
S | Estimated value |
T | Interpolated value |
U | Uncalibrated |
W | Control value |
X | Excessive difference |
SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags
The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:
Flag | Description |
---|---|
0 | no quality control |
1 | good value |
2 | probably good value |
3 | probably bad value |
4 | bad value |
5 | changed value |
6 | value below detection |
7 | value in excess |
8 | interpolated value |
9 | missing value |
A | value phenomenon uncertain |
B | nominal value |
Q | value below limit of quantification |